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The Prusten Project began with an idea; Can tiger vocalizations be used to identify individuals? From there, our nonprofit went from a small-scale research project to an international nonprofit organization in fewer than 10 years. However, the success of The Prusten Project would not have been possible without the partnerships with zoos across the United States recording their tigers. These essential partnerships resulted in terabytes of data, and data is still streaming in today! As the data poured in, a realization set in...How can one, maybe two people go through all of these data and pick out the sound bites of tigers?!

The answer arose from individual people offering assistance, and the idea of the citizen science aspect of The Prusten Project began!

Citizen science has proven to be one of the most powerful tools for The Prusten Project, completing hundreds of sound files in a matter of weeks and making our volunteers some of the most invaluable members of The Prusten Project’s vision. Like The Prusten Project, citizen science has benefited numerous researchers and conservation efforts across the world. Better yet, many of these initiatives can be done remotely or on your computer!

One of the most successful citizen science outlets is Zooniverse. Zooniverse embodies hundreds of thousands of volunteers who all have an interest in actively assisting research. It is a platform for researchers to explain their projects and goals, and for people to aid them in their scientific inquiries. Major discoveries have occurred because of volunteers noting something they have found, or by bouncing ideas back and forth with the researchers themselves. As Zooniverse describes, “a major challenge of 21st-century research is dealing with the flood of information we can now collect about the world around us” and with the help of volunteers, researchers can analyze information quickly, saving time and resources, leading to faster progress and a better understanding of the world.

One of the most successful citizen science projects on Zooniverse is Snapshot Serengeti. The primary researcher, Dr. Ali Swanson, uses camera traps throughout Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, resulting in tens of thousands of photos that have wildlife in them to be identified. Through Zooniverse, Dr. Swanson is able to upload these photos and then rely on volunteers to identify each animal. The results of the project have allowed the researchers to answer questions about herbivore dynamics, carnivore interactions, and predator-prey dynamics.

While platforms like Zooniverse work well for projects like Snapshot Serengeti, The Prusten Project trains its volunteers one by one, teaching each person to use specialized software and how to go through long sound files and pick out tiger vocalizations. However, like larger platforms, we are able to train our volunteers from anywhere in the world. With video chat services readily available, we are able to communicate with people from anywhere, with a combined volunteer force from the U.S., the UK, and Canada!

Volunteer Liselle from the UK going through a file and picking out a tiger call.

The whole Prusten Project team is excited to incorporate citizen scientists into our project. Citizen science programs geared at bioacoustics monitoring, such as used in The Prusten Project, have the potential to spark more interest in conservation education and practice by putting power in the hands of the people. Because at the end of the day, for the conservation of a species to occur, allpeople have to care. And what better way to invoke compassion toward wildlife, than being personally involved with the saving of a species. ​